University will consider more applicants at the lower end of the scale in terms of test scores in order to increase African-American enrollment

Andy Kanengiser:

The University of Mississippi law school is endorsing a goal to bolster its African-American enrollment while altering its admissions standards.

The school wants to achieve a 15-20 percent minority student enrollment during the next three years and beyond, law Dean Samuel Davis said.

To do that, the law school faculty agreed Friday to revise its admission policy. One of the changes would have the admissions committee consider more applicants of all races at the lower end of the scale in terms of test scores.

The new admissions policy "affirms the goals of academic excellence, of having law students who are predicted to achieve academic success," but "also embraces the goal of diversity," Davis said. "Diversity adds to the educational experience of all students."

The minority enrollment in the current first-year class that entered in fall 2005 was nearly 16 percent, and among those, the African-American enrollment in the class was almost 13 percent.

In 2004, the numbers in the first-year class were 10.5 percent minority, and 7 percent African-American.

In recent years, the number of first-year law students admitted at Ole Miss has ranged between 180 and 225.

As Mississippi's lone public law school seeks to attract more minorities and promote diversity, Davis noted it's in a state with a 38 percent minority population, the highest in the nation.

Mississippi has a history of discrimination against African-Americans in higher education and the state is "striving to look to the future as we make amends for the past," he said.

The resolution adopted by the law faculty Thursday didn't state a quota because that would be unconstitutional under the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decisions, Davis said.

The resolution expresses the aspiration that a "critical mass" of minority enrollment should be closer to numbers achieved in 2005, rather than 2004. Davis said.

Over the next three years, the Ole Miss law school will track the students admitted. There are about 500 students enrolled at the law school in Oxford.

Discussions at the law school sparked heated debate before final passage by a vote of 14-7 via secret ballot.

Associate law dean Ron Rychlak said the changes would take effect immediately with recruiters working to build next fall's class. School officials plan to assess the policy at the end of three years.

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